It doesn't appear on any map, is barely visited by authorities and its people live in almost medieval conditions.

Yet the village of Ponorata in northern Romania is home to as many as 500 Roma, who eke out an existence in abject an poverty and squalor that is almost unimaginable in Europe.

Few have access to electricity and over 90 per cent of them are illiterate and unemployed. They survive by foraging in the region, government support and day labour work.

Poverty: Sorina Prodan holds a child in the abjectly poor Roma settlement of Ponorata. Some 400 to
500 Roma live in the hamlet, which does not appear on maps

Medieval conditions: Roma pause for a photograph
while riding their horse-drawn cart, which for many locals is the main
means of transportation out of town

Cold comfort: Maria Vican, 64, applies mud mixed
with straw to insulate the hut she shares with two other family members
against the coming winter

Forgotten: Roma walk through the village, where more than 95 per cent of residents are illiterate and unemployed

Playtime: A child skips along a dirt track in
Ponorata. An NGO has set up a school an and incentive
system to persuade parents to allow their youngsters to attend

Denise Varga, left, seven, cuddles her puppy Anka while sitting on the doorstep of her two-room hut. Right, local youth Mando holds his young relative Alexandru Lingurar

Marinela Boldis holds up a photo showing her
late husband and their two children: Marinela and her family spent eight
months in France, begging and living off government child payments,
until her husband became ill and died after they returned to Romania, leaving her to raise their children alone

Traditional lifestyles: Young mother Claudia
Varga holds her infant daughter Raluca as a youth leads a donkey past in
the background

Panorata's people live in almost
medieval conditions. Their dirt-floored, single-room wooden huts,
insulated with a mixture of mud and straw, house families of up to 15.

Some
have been to France, mostly to the city of Lille, where they made
enough money through begging and scrap metal collecting to build small
brick houses.

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Most residents, however, live in one or two-room huts made of wood, mud and straw that sometimes collapse.

A
single well serves the entire community, which is rarely visited by
outsiders. Administrative responsibility lies with the nearby city of
Coroieni, but locals say this extends to little more than occasionaly
drive-through visits by officials.

For
the Roma, horse-drawn carts are their main means of transport if they
want to travel any further than the confines of their own community.

Remote: The village is situated along a single proper road, houses arrayed on either side. Some are built with modern building materials, indicating wealth and status

A horse stands in front of a relatively
well-to-do home: Those with brick houses have generally returned to Ponorata with modest sums of money made overseas

Enterprise: Local Roma men attend a horse sale.
Many Roma from Ponorata have spent time in France to earn money, mostly
through begging and scrap metal collection

For sale: Horses belonging to the local Roma Varga family stand chained to a cart during the horse sale

Pamela Prodan, left, who is a mother of two, and her sister-in-law Sorina Prodan pause while Pamela holds one of her children and the hand of a relative's child in the left hand image. Pictured left, local children Calin Istvan, right, and Rocsana Nicoleta Varga pose for a photo

Rustic: Claudia Erdelyi, Damian Augustin and Eugen
Erdelyi (pictured left to right) pose for a photograph in the rolling
meadows surrounding Ponorata

Smocina Boldis breast feeds her infant daughter Daria: Romania has the biggest population of Roma in Europe, with estimates of up to two million living there

Romeo and Smocina pose for another picture, left. Right, Ion Varga collects water from the hamlet's single well as his relatives Claudia Gianina and Darius Varga look on

Discrimination: Roma are regarded with suspicion
by other Romanians and tensions frequently boil over into clashes
with neighbouring communities

Chores: A young girl carrying a bucket of water from the single community well walks up Ponorata's only street as others care for a youngster nearby

But
the people of Ponorata are not merely victims of indifference and
isolation, but also an outright hostility that occasionally boils over
into clashes with the authorities and the residents of nearby
settlements.

A few years
ago, a murder took place in a neighbouring village and several Roma
homes were burned in response. Romanians living nearby also blame the
Roma for robberies which often target drivers travelling through the
region.

Romania has the
biggest population of Roma in Europe, with estimates of up to two
million living there.

They have a tragic history: right up until the mid-19th Century the vast majority
of Romania's Roma were kept as slaves. During the Second World War as many as 1.5million Roma were exterminated by the Nazis and their allies.

Cramped conditions: Veronika Varga and other
members of her family look out from the doorway of the one-room wood hut they share with other family members

Hand to mouth: Pregnant Genoveva Lingurar feeds her son Alexandru a potato baked in a campfire as her other son Andrei approaches

Andrei Lingurar whittles with a knife: The people of Ponorata survive by foraging in the region, government support and day labour work

Difficult living conditions: Genoveva holds her son Alexandru in the makeshift and temporary home she shares with her husband and seven children

Dingy: Maria Petrisur breast feeds one of her children in the one-room wood, mud and straw hut she shares with her family

But well decorated: Livia Lungarare poses for a photo with her husband in their two-room home in the left-hand image. Right, locals ride a horse-drawn cart

A baby lies tightly swaddled in a one-room home: Romanians, including members of the country's Roma minority, will from next year be free to move to the UK

It's not all grim: Senorita Molodvan, left, her sister Petronela, and their relative Flutor Boldis and his daughter Sedonia pose for a photo in relatively well-to-do two-room home they share with other family members

Andrea-Maria, left, and Valeria sit next to the
only street that goes through Ponorata: Locals say their community is
hardly visited by local officials and gets next to no help

Roma ride by the youngsters in a horse-drawn cart: Many Roma have tried to escape the cycle of poverty in Romania by travelling to live overseas

Traffic jam: Ponorata residents approach each other in horse-drawn carts travelling along the town's single road

With
officials in their own country apparently content to leave them to
their fate and their neighbours openly hostile to their presence, it is
no wonder that hundreds of thousands of Roma have sought a better life
abroad.

Already as many as
half a million are estimated to have taken up residence in France,
according to the European Roma Rights Centre.

The
racism they face in their homeland has followed them. Hostility towards
the Roma is said to be contributing to the most recent re-emergence of
French National Front.

Romanians,
including members of the country's Roma minority, will from next year
be free to move to the UK as part of the European Union policy of free
movement for workers.

Family photo: Members of the Varga family, who spent a year in France before taking money from the French government to leave, gather near their home

This way! Sisters Maria-Gianina and Mihaela-Rocsana Erdelyi head home after attending a preschool class

Tumbledown: Livia Moldovan, 60, sits on the doorestep of her leaning home. The badly constructed homes of Ponorata's residents fall down from time to time

Working animals: Marina Boldis greets local dogs as Randafir Boldis and his son Malin shoe a horse outside their home

Pamela Prodan stands outside a family hut: The dirt-floored, single-room wooden huts, insulated with a mixture of mud and straw, house families of up to 15

Help: Leslie Hawke, mother of actor
Ethan Hawke, and Maria Gheorghiu (red hair), co-founders of Romanian
NGO OvidiuRo, lead children home after a pre-school class

Respite: OvidiuRo's Nadia Gavrila, left, supervises children playing with blocks in a pre-school class that is aimed to break Ponorata's cycle of poverty and illiteracy

Ms Gheorghiu teaches young Roma children:
OvidiuRo is seeking to enroll the children of Ponorata in kindergarten
through a coupon incentive system for the parents

Cute: Young Roma children count with their fingers during their preschool class

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes: Ms Gheorghiu teaches young Roma children parts of the body

Origins: Linguistic and genetic evidence
indicates the Roma originated from the Indian subcontinent, emigrating
from India toward the north-west 1,500 years ago

But
there are efforts to help them in their homeland. In an effort to break
the generational cycle of illiteracy, chronic unemployment and squalor, a
Romanian NGO called OvidiuRo is seeking to enroll the children of
Ponorata in kindergarten through a coupon incentive system for the
parents.

Leslie Hawke, the
mother of American actor Ethan Hawke, who first came to Romania while
serving in the Peace Corps in 2000, co-founded OvidiuRo along with Maria
Gheorghiu, and both of them visited Ponorata recently.

But
Viorica Pert, a teacher at Ponorata's school, told Romanian paper
Gazeta de Maramures that she and colleagues struggle to get positive
results from youngsters in a community struggling for daily survival.

Although
many of the pupils see teaches show promise, 'many drop out of school
after fifth grade because they marry or have [other] activities,' she
said.